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Big Finish: Monthly Range #97
Doctor Who: The Wishing Beast / The Vanity Box
The Wishing Beast (A Three-Part Story)
What can it mean when the Doctor and Mel are drawn to an asteroid by a message from the strange, elderly Applewhite sisters? The travellers are promised that they will receive their dearest wishes when they enter the frozen forests of this benighted shard of a world. But the ghosts that haunt this place are desperate to warn the Doctor about the sisters' promises. Only the ghosts know the true nature of the legendary Wishing Beast.
The Vanity Box (A One-Part Story)
A strange beauty parlour has opened its doors for business in a dowdy Salford terrace circa 1965. Monsieur Coiffure is the talk of the street with his fabulous make-overs. When the Doctor arrives, however, he knows at once that there's been some unnatural titivation going on.
What can it mean when the Doctor and Mel are drawn to an asteroid by a message from the strange, elderly Applewhite sisters? The travellers are promised that they will receive their dearest wishes when they enter the frozen forests of this benighted shard of a world. But the ghosts that haunt this place are desperate to warn the Doctor about the sisters' promises. Only the ghosts know the true nature of the legendary Wishing Beast.
The Vanity Box (A One-Part Story)
A strange beauty parlour has opened its doors for business in a dowdy Salford terrace circa 1965. Monsieur Coiffure is the talk of the street with his fabulous make-overs. When the Doctor arrives, however, he knows at once that there's been some unnatural titivation going on.
Audio CD
First published July 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 26, 2023
"I knew this would happen some day but I just didn’t expect it to be today..."
June 12, 2026
The Wishing Beast has a very distinctive cover and that is certain to be the thing that has got lots of people to listen. The story itself is like some f***ked up nightmare and I am really not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad one. The story balances comedy and drama well, which is something I’ve noticed a lack of in this era of monthly adventures I’ve listened to of late. Colin Baker carries everything with his loveable charm (as usual), Bonnie Langford gives a good enough performance & Jean Marsh guest stars as a random mad old woman (typecasting perhaps?). The story centres around the titular Wishing Beast who is treated with such suspense that he really works as a key plot point, even if everything after the reveal of what he is, is dull and duller. I enjoyed the Doctor communing with the ghosts on the asteroid as there were many great lines and comedic moments, for example him being driven mad just trying to get a straight answer from the ghosts. The sisters serve the exposition of the story and as the antagonists, which really did make them a bit too much of an overbearing presence in the plot.
The threat they provide by the climax though is just completely dead, as they incoherently riff through the climax, so honestly by that point their deaths were a blessed relief; not a shocking moment. The story does see the Doctor & Mel going off on different paths, so by the end it’s not hard to work out which was better. Mel’s one subsists of dialogue and action sequences to the tune of ‘ooh isn’t this spooky, please think this spooky’. It wasn’t hard to determine that Colin’s plot was far more interesting and he has some pretty moving speeches at the climax, arguably the most entertaining part of the three episodes. The pacing of the story is also a bit of a weird thing about it, the three episodes seem to somehow still be too long as there is fairly little apart from reinforcing ‘ooh isn’t this spooky’ in episode two. All the action and tensity is crammed into episode three, which just made everything feel rather disjointed. I was entertained by the soft whimsy of episode one, bored by the repetitiveness of episode two, and frankly lost by episode three. It’s by no means a bad story, just a bit uninspired and poorly paced. It had decent fantasy elements, a dragon for no reason too, so there is plenty for fans who learn more towards that genre.
The Vanity Box -
The Vanity Box is an additional one-parter that comes with The Wishing Beast. It’s a sort of sequel to the story, as well as being a short historical story. Honestly it’s nothing special or unique but it does have merit, namely one of the funniest sixth Doctor scenes I’ve heard to date. Hearing Colin pretend to be a middle aged Mancunian woman was hilarious and I had such a fun time with those scenes. Adversely, a lot of the story is the real middle-aged Mancunian women bang on about their appearances and gossip, so I wasn’t exactly taken in by that. Mel does relatively nothing throughout and it’s just the Doctor investigating and rather easily putting pay to the villain. I did like that the events of this story set up the events of The Wishing Beast in a very cyclical way, so the ‘timey-wimey’ aspects of the story were definitely admirable. The only other thing I really notices was hearing the indomitable Robert Jezek (best known as the ace detective penguin Frobisher) put on a fantastically awful French accent and play the role of a minor antagonist; more an obstruction than a villain really. It’s a passable twenty five minutes and the emphasis on humour gives it a fair distinction from the previous story in this release. You definitely need to listen to both but this one is far easier listening than the latter half of The Wishing Beast.
The threat they provide by the climax though is just completely dead, as they incoherently riff through the climax, so honestly by that point their deaths were a blessed relief; not a shocking moment. The story does see the Doctor & Mel going off on different paths, so by the end it’s not hard to work out which was better. Mel’s one subsists of dialogue and action sequences to the tune of ‘ooh isn’t this spooky, please think this spooky’. It wasn’t hard to determine that Colin’s plot was far more interesting and he has some pretty moving speeches at the climax, arguably the most entertaining part of the three episodes. The pacing of the story is also a bit of a weird thing about it, the three episodes seem to somehow still be too long as there is fairly little apart from reinforcing ‘ooh isn’t this spooky’ in episode two. All the action and tensity is crammed into episode three, which just made everything feel rather disjointed. I was entertained by the soft whimsy of episode one, bored by the repetitiveness of episode two, and frankly lost by episode three. It’s by no means a bad story, just a bit uninspired and poorly paced. It had decent fantasy elements, a dragon for no reason too, so there is plenty for fans who learn more towards that genre.
The Vanity Box -
The Vanity Box is an additional one-parter that comes with The Wishing Beast. It’s a sort of sequel to the story, as well as being a short historical story. Honestly it’s nothing special or unique but it does have merit, namely one of the funniest sixth Doctor scenes I’ve heard to date. Hearing Colin pretend to be a middle aged Mancunian woman was hilarious and I had such a fun time with those scenes. Adversely, a lot of the story is the real middle-aged Mancunian women bang on about their appearances and gossip, so I wasn’t exactly taken in by that. Mel does relatively nothing throughout and it’s just the Doctor investigating and rather easily putting pay to the villain. I did like that the events of this story set up the events of The Wishing Beast in a very cyclical way, so the ‘timey-wimey’ aspects of the story were definitely admirable. The only other thing I really notices was hearing the indomitable Robert Jezek (best known as the ace detective penguin Frobisher) put on a fantastically awful French accent and play the role of a minor antagonist; more an obstruction than a villain really. It’s a passable twenty five minutes and the emphasis on humour gives it a fair distinction from the previous story in this release. You definitely need to listen to both but this one is far easier listening than the latter half of The Wishing Beast.
May 29, 2018
Nonsensical, interesting, but ultimately failing in every way to keep me engaged. The three-part story winds up being a very poor set up for...
(SPOILERS)
the one part story which really has nothing to do with each other other than setting up a bootstrap paradox. Poorly. Paul Magrs is better than this, and quite frankly, Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford deserve better. For a more detailed review, visit www.travelingthevortex.com (episode #373)
(SPOILERS)
the one part story which really has nothing to do with each other other than setting up a bootstrap paradox. Poorly. Paul Magrs is better than this, and quite frankly, Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford deserve better. For a more detailed review, visit www.travelingthevortex.com (episode #373)
January 9, 2018
A lot darker than the previous releases, I think it worked well with Colin Baker's darker 6th Doctor. Both Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford did stupendously as per usual. I do think, on the whole, that Langford has better chemistry with Baker than she does with McCoy -- Sophie Aldred is undoubtedly McCoy's companion.
July 2, 2022
I get annoyed whenever The Doctor says in other stories that ghosts aren't real, so this premise for The Wishing Beast seemed like it'd challenge that. The Vanity Box was just one part. Both stories are fine.
January 30, 2019
The last part really sealed it for me. Having the monster cone back and the Doctor sending it to start the story all over again was a nice touch.
April 16, 2023
It's a very good 3.5!
December 13, 2023
The Wishing Beast ****
The Vanity Box ****
The Vanity Box ****
October 5, 2024
Not bad, not spectacular. Maybe my standards are higher than they used to be. The ending was a nice touch.
May 4, 2015
Well, it's by Paul Magrs, so you know it's going to be fairly weird. And so it is, with the Doctor and Mel being lured to a remote asteroid where there are strange goings on with a couple of dotty old ladies in a quite impossible landscape.
Strange as this is, it's not quite as bonkers as the short adventure "The Vanity Box" that rounds out the CD. (It's advertised as a separate story, but, honestly, you need to listen to the two together and in sequence). This is set in a terraced street in Salford, and no prizes for guessing which long-running British TV series it's taking the piss out of.
With a sinister alien presence attempting to take over a hairdressers', it's directly played as a slapstick comedy, acting as an effective counterpoint to the somewhat depressing (if well-acted) main feature. Taken together, the two stories are rather better than they might be on their own.
Strange as this is, it's not quite as bonkers as the short adventure "The Vanity Box" that rounds out the CD. (It's advertised as a separate story, but, honestly, you need to listen to the two together and in sequence). This is set in a terraced street in Salford, and no prizes for guessing which long-running British TV series it's taking the piss out of.
With a sinister alien presence attempting to take over a hairdressers', it's directly played as a slapstick comedy, acting as an effective counterpoint to the somewhat depressing (if well-acted) main feature. Taken together, the two stories are rather better than they might be on their own.
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April 8, 2009The Wishing Beast, which confronts Six and Mel with two mad old ladies and a collection of persecuted ghosts, really shouldn't work, but it does. Somehow the cast, which includes Jean Marsh as one of the mad old ladies, make Paul Magrs' script really zing. Great stuff.[return][return]The Vanity Box is a slightly humorous coda to The Wishing Beast, but the humour is based on the premise that old ladies from Salford sound a bit funny, and so does Colin Baker when he tries to imitate them. This turns out to be a rather weak premise.
November 5, 2013
So there was a big gap of several weeks between when I listened to the Wishing Beast the Vanity Box. Having just listened to the Vanity Box I liked it more. I thought the Northern Ladies were quite amusing and it was a small funny adventure. The Wishing Beast I remember as being a bit of an odd mixture between funny and scary, not quite sure which it wanted to be. Mel was ok, if a tad dull. I definitely prefer him with Evelyn.
January 21, 2016
The Wishing Beast- The Doctor and Mel land and are told by old ladies that they were expected. Though it was Mel that was expected they were surprised why. They are to be fed to the Wishing Beast. Can the Doctor stop the beast and the sisters?
The Vanity Box- The Doctor and Mel land in 1965 to a town that has a salon that is aging women backwards. Can the Doctor stop the owner before he kills someone?
The Vanity Box- The Doctor and Mel land in 1965 to a town that has a salon that is aging women backwards. Can the Doctor stop the owner before he kills someone?
February 16, 2016
I really enjoyed this. I'm not overly familiar with the Sixth Doctor or Mel, but bought this because of Jean Marsh playing one of the baddies -- and she's great here. I think both the Sixth Doctor and Mel get a lot better writing/more to do in the audio adventures compared to their tumultuous time on the show.
The vacuum thing in this is a bit silly, but oh well. This is still a solid tale, and the bonus interviews are also interesting.
The vacuum thing in this is a bit silly, but oh well. This is still a solid tale, and the bonus interviews are also interesting.
August 30, 2014
The Doctor and Mel investigate the mysterious Wishing Beast on an isolated asteroid.
The Doctor investigates mysterious goings on at a beauty salon.
The Doctor investigates mysterious goings on at a beauty salon.
May 12, 2015
Two connected tales with Six and Mel.
June 19, 2024
Two short adventures with the 6th Doctor (Colin Baker) and Melanie Bush (Bonnie Langford).
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews